RAISED WRONG

Intro We didn't say "I love you." We checked the locks twice.

Verse 1 Home was where you learned which floorboards told on you Which door stuck hard, which lie might get you through How to eat real quiet when the room went cold How to look sixteen when you were eight years old Nobody taught fear — fear taught itself Kept its Sunday coat on the hallway shelf We called it manners when we lowered our eyes We didn't say "I love you" We checked the locks twice

Pre-Chorus Some boys got bedtime stories I got footsteps in the hall

Chorus I was raised wrong Raised to stay ready Keep your hands loose Keep your heartbeat steady Raised wrong Where sorry meant "don't get caught" Where silence kept the table set And pride ate everything we lost So if I love like a locked door If I'm gone before the dawn Don't call it mystery, darling — I was raised wrong

Post-Chorus Raised wrong.

Verse 2 My old man never talked about pain He just got quieter every time it came Said, "A man don't flinch where another man can see." Took me thirty years to learn that wasn't bravery Mama held peace like a plate on the edge One wrong word and the whole night cracked She could read weather in the turn of a key That's where I learned to read everybody but me

Pre-Chorus I learned to read a room Before I learned to read a book

Chorus I was raised wrong Raised to stay ready Keep your hands loose Keep your heartbeat steady Raised wrong Where sorry meant "don't get caught" Where silence kept the table set And pride ate everything we lost So if I love like a locked door If I'm gone before the dawn Don't call it mystery, darling — I was raised wrong

Bridge Now here's the fucked-up part — Some of it worked I can smell trouble before trouble opens its mouth I can stand stone-still while the ceiling comes down I can hold a room nobody else can hold Bad lessons don't stop being useful Just because they were wrong

Final Chorus I was raised wrong But I know exactly what raised me A house full of ghosts That were still fucking breathing Raised wrong And I carried it too long Called survival character Then wondered what went wrong Now I'm learning doors can stay unlocked And love don't have to come armed But some nights I still sleep facing the hallway Yeah... I was raised wrong

Outro Took a while. Still tuning.

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